Welcome to the Church’s Year of the Word! This is how the Bible begins in Genesis 1:1-3…

In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth.
Now the earth was a formless void,
there was darkness over the deep,
and God’s spirit hovered over the water.

God said, ‘Let there be light’, and there was light.
“God said” That means God spoke light into existence – and the earth and universe and all they contain – and us. And what do we use to speak? Words, of course!
As we begin Advent, the start of a new Christian year – this time a special Year of the Word – we remember and celebrate the fact that God’s Word has been active since the very beginning. In this season we are preparing to celebrate Christmas, and that is about the Word too, the Word made flesh. St John puts it beautifully in the first chapter of his Gospel (John 1:1-5,14).

In the beginning was the Word: and the Word was with God and the Word was God.

He was with God in the beginning.

Through him all things came to be,
not one thing had its being but through him.

All that came to be had life in him and that life was the light of men,

a light that shines in the dark,
a light that darkness could not overpower

…

The Word was made flesh,
he lived among us,
and we saw his glory,
the glory that is his as the only Son of the Father,
full of grace and truth.
Welcome to the Year of the Word, when we are invited to listen, learn and live God’s holy Word.